Exploring the Past

In its latest cost-cutting move, the De Soto USD 232 school board agreed to increase fees for bus transportation for the 2002-2003 school year by $60.

As they approved the fee increase, board members said uncertainty involving the level of state funding for the following year left them little choice.

The district first started charging bus fees at the beginning of the 2000-2001 school year and hadn't increased the fee since, despite a substantial rise in costs.

One of De Soto's popular festivals was forced to change while the city's biggest celebration returned to its new established time and place.

Max Atwell, chairman of the De Soto Watermelon Festival committee, said the festival would return to Miller Park in August. The festival dodged a bullet when organizers for the Kansas City Spirit Fest rescheduled their event for early June.

The connection between the local festival and the Kansas City event was the Midland Empire Carnival. The carnival had an ongoing contract with the Spirit Fest and only an annual contract with the Watermelon Festival.

Spirit Fest organizers decided the Labor Day dates conflicted with too many other metropolitan events and rescheduled their event for the weekend after Memorial Day, leaving the carnival free to come to De Soto Aug. 29 to Sept. 1.

In response to requests for more games against different competition, it was decided De Soto Youth Baseball Association teams would compete against opponents from Basehor, Bonner Springs, Lansing and other nearby towns.

27 years ago

FROM THE DE SOTO NEWS

March 1980

Walter E. Rutherford, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Rutherford, De Soto, received word that he passed the Certified Public Accountant tests he had taken in November.

Joyce Brown was a patient at the Olathe Community Hospital, where she had been for more than a week. She had double pneumonia when she entered the hospital, but was making satisfactory recovery.

Dannie Torneden had surgery at Lawrence Memorial Hospital following an injury received when he slipped as he walked out of Coker's Store and fell, breaking his leg in two places.

His mother, Dorothy Torneden, was making daily trips to the hospital to visit him.

Three De Soto High School journalism students qualified for the Kansas Scholastic Press Association state contest after winning awards in the northeast regional contest at Kansas University.

Chris Hall, news editor of the Green Pride, took second place in newspaper feature writing. Green Pride staff member Karen Palmer took third in newspaper headline writing and Wildcat yearbook staff member Tracy Holmes took third in yearbook layout of double page spread.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Keegan, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth McMillian, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Dibble, Mr. and Mrs. Walt Johnston and Mr. and Mrs. Beryl Steele returned from a week's cruise that took them to Cape Haitian in Haiti, San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas Island in the Virgin Islands and to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

They reported a wonderful trip with the highlights being a tour of each island, the food, shows on the ship and a beach party.

De Soto High School junior Barbara Bowlin, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Bowlin, was one of 250 vocal music students selected from across the state to perform in the all-state honor choir in Wichita.

In addition to the Bowlins, others from De Soto who attended were DHS students Jane Crownover and Carol McMillian; instrument instructors Dan Steinel and Jeff Hodges; vocal instructors Craig Tolin and Mary Etta Copeland; and student teacher Martha Means.

53 years ago

FROM THE DE SOTO NEWS

March 1954

Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Hymer spent Sunday with their children in Kansas City and helped their daughter, Mrs. L.M. Chambers, celebrate her birthday.

Eva Moll received word that her granddaughter-in-law, Mrs. Alvin Moll and her family had reached New York safely and would sail aboard the Steam Ship Patch that night for a German port where they would be met by their husband and father, Alvin Moll.

Joan Lindrud, fifth-grade daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cliff Lindrud, was severely injured at the grade school when in some way her right arm was badly cut as the glass in a school door was shattered. She was treated at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and because of loss of much blood was given several transfusions. She recovered rapidly